What drew you into rowing at 17 years old?
It happened by chance really, my family moved near the Thames, and I looked in the Yellow Pages for a water sport to try. It was between canoeing and rowing and there happened to be a rowing club nearby. I’d always done other sports at school so it was an opportunity to try something new and I wanted to have something of my own away from family life.

Would you recommend rowing to any readers that want to try a new skill?
Absolutely, it’s a really good sport to take up because it’s challenging physically and you advance your skill base by developing your technique. You can do it individually or you can race and train with other people. It’s actually a relatively cheap sport in comparison to a gym membership – if you join a rowing club you get facilities there, boats to use, and it’s really social. Also the specified training times are ideal for people that find it hard to motivate themselves to get to the gym.

Were you surprised when they said you could be a brilliant rower?
Totally, when my coach said that to me I thought he was crazy! Up until then I’d never aspired to be anything beyond good, but rowing obviously suited me and he could see that I had the drive and determination. Looking back I guess I could have been good at something else before that, but I’d never really had that person there to guide me. Once he knew I had potential he put me on the pathway and it went from there, it’s crucial to have a mentor in the first few years of your career.

Did you ever imagine you would achieve the success you did?
No, I never thought it was possible. I’d always seen Olympic athletes as superhuman; something extremely special, and I didn’t see myself like that. I guess when you’re starting out as a complete novice you just think it’s too far to go, and I never really looked big, I just looked at taking each step at a time. Once I had initial success I knew I wanted to implement that further. It’s about understanding the potential you have and that it’s achievable, then it’s just aspiring to reach your goals.

How did you juggle training with your home and work life?
I was full-time rowing when I started my degree which was pretty hard, but I think if you want to do it then you can. It’s just having good time management and prioritising, and sacrificing other things – for me that was downtime and fun time – because you can’t fit everything into your day.

How did you feel about your silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens?
Well, it was my first senior medal and an Olympic medal that at the beginning of that year I thought I would never be able to get, which at 24 years old I know was a massive achievement. However, we’d gone into the final race as favourites, were well capable of winning, and we didn’t fulfill our potential. It was a gold medal lost, rather than a silver medal won.

What made you decide to retire from rowing?
I decided to retire from rowing because I had been to an Olympic Games, carried on for another year and won the World Championships, and I wasn’t enjoying the sport anymore. I didn’t feel it was something I wanted to carry on doing and sacrifice my life to for another three years until Beijing. I honestly thought I was closing the door on sport really, and I was happy with my decision when the time came. 

Then you started cycling…what was the biggest challenge about swapping sports?
The space of time I had to do it in; I had two and a half years until the start of the Olympic Games. I had to change, adapt and develop, as well as learn all about a new sport in a completely different environment.

Were you nervous about cycling in a velodrome?
Initially, yes. The velodrome is 250 metres around, with two banks about five metres high and the banks are 45 degrees, so when you’re at the top and looking down you just think, ‘How am I supposed to ride down this, it’s not physically possible’, but that’s part of it I guess, the excitement and overcoming a fear.

What kind of speeds do you get up to?
You can be riding at up to 30mph, sometimes more.

You must have to be so focused to concentrate at that pace?
Definitely, but that’s what I really enjoy about the sport, it’s not just physical it’s the technical side and having to be spatially aware.

Your cycling coach Dan Hunt has described you as ‘the most driven athlete I have ever met’, where does that drive come from?
I don’t know really, I guess there are so few opportunities to perform in sport, with the World Championships once a year, and the Olympic Games every four years, that you feel you can’t just sit around and wait, you have to make it happen. If I’m going to do something, it’s all or nothing. I don’t want to finish an event and say I didn’t give it everything, how can you not if you’ve got the opportunity to go and be an Olympic champion? I’m open about how much I want to win which makes me sound like a very driven person, but in every other aspect of life I’m lazy and don’t do things properly. All of my resources are put into sport.